1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a drawer of a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a double drawer of a refrigerator comprising an auxiliary drawer having drawing rails which assist a main drawer for storing food to slide out and guide rails which assist the auxiliary drawer to slide out.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, a refrigerator is equipment for storing foods at a lower temperature. A refrigerator is used to store foods in a freezing or refrigerating state according to the foods to be stored therein. Cold air supplied into a refrigerator is produced by heat exchange with refrigerant. The refrigerant circulates in the refrigerator while undergoing a continuous refrigeration cycle of compression, condensation, expansion, and evaporation. Thus, the cold air produced by the heat exchange of the refrigerant is uniformly distributed into the refrigerator by means of the convection, thereby allowing foods in the refrigerator to be stored at a desired temperature.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a refrigerator according to a prior art in a state where a drawer door is opened. As shown in the figure, a refrigerator main body 1 is shaped as a substantially rectangular hexahedron. Hinged doors 10 that can selectively open and close the right and left sides of the main body 1 are formed at an upper portion of the main body 1, and a drawer door 12 that can slides in and out of the main body 1 in a fore and aft direction is formed at a lower portion of the main body 1.
Although not shown in the figure, refrigerating and freezing chambers are formed in the refrigerator main body 1 in order to store various foods after freezing or refrigerating them. The interiors of the respective refrigerating and freezing chambers are provided with a variety of shelves, drawers, trays, and the like according to features of the various foods.
The temperature varies according to positions in the respective refrigerating and freezing chambers. The shelves, drawers, trays, and the like, which partition the respective inner spaces of the chambers, control the convection flow of the cold air in the main body 1, and then make it possible to control the temperature according to a position. In a general refrigerator, since it is hard to deliver the cold air to the lower portion of the main body 1, the temperature in the lower portion is relatively high.
In the meantime, a drawer chamber 20, which slides in and out by the drawer door 12 and has an inner space for storing food, is provided in the lower portion of the refrigerator main body 1. The drawer chamber 20, in which meat, fish, or food necessary to be stored for a long time is stored, comprises a plurality of accommodation spaces with various dimensions in order to store a variety of foods from small to large size.
The drawer chamber 20 is provided with a storage box 30 for storing relatively large-sized food and a pull drawer 40 for storing foods relatively smaller than those stored in the storage box 30. Among the foods necessary to be stored in a frozen state, the large-sized foods or the foods unnecessary to be divided are stored in the storage box 30.
The storage box 30 is connected to the lower portion of the drawer door 12 through hinges, and thus slides out forward along with the drawer door 12 when the drawer door 12 is pulled forward. Therefore, a user can look at the inside of the storage box 30 only by pulling the drawer door 12 and allow the storage box 30 to slide in and out without an additional operation.
In addition, upper ends of both side surfaces of the storage box 30 are fixed to one sides of three-step-telescopic rails 50, and the other sides of the rails 50 are fixed to both inside surfaces of the refrigerator main body 1. Therefore, the storage box 30 cooperates with the drawer door 12 and can thus slide in and out while being guided by the rails 50.
Meanwhile, the pull drawer 40 is installed in the upper portion of the storage box 30. In detail with reference to FIG. 2, the pull drawer 40 is formed in a drawer shape by allowing a plurality of wires to be crossed and bent.
The upper portion of the pull drawer 40 is opened. A front plate 42, which defines a partial front external appearance of the pull drawer 40, is provided in the front of the pull drawer 40. Rail mount brackets 44, to which second movable rails 54″ to be mentioned below are fixed, are provided on the upper ends of both sides of the pull drawer 40.
The pull drawer 40 is pulled and pushed while sliding in the fore and aft direction along the three-step-telescopic rails 50, so that the user may store the desired foods. In addition, each of the rails 50 comprises a fixed rail 52 and a movable rail 54 sliding and moving in the fore and aft direction.
The fixed rails 52 are installed to horizontally extend on the insides of the refrigerator main body 1, i.e., on the inside surfaces of the right and left side walls of the drawer chamber 20, and serve to guide the slide of the movable rails 54.
In more detail, when the movable rails 54 are mounted in the fixed rails 52, rolling members provided on the movable rails 54 are brought into contact with surfaces of the fixed rails 52, so that the movable rails 54 slide along the fixed rails 52.
In the meantime, each of the movable rails 54 is composed of a first movable rail 54′ and a second movable rail 54″. The first movable rails 54′ are mounted to the fixed rails 52 and thus configured to slide forward along the fixed rails 52, while the second movable rails 54″ are mounted to the first movable rails 54′ to slide forward along the first movable rails 54′.
At this time, the first movable rails 54′ and the second movable rails 54″ are provided with the rolling members. The rolling members roll in the fixed rails 52 for guiding the first movable rails 54′ and with the first movable rails 54′ for guiding the second movable rails 54″, respectively.
Since the second movable rails 54″ are fixed to the respective rail mount brackets 44, the pull drawer 40 can slide in the fore and aft direction along the rails 50. The extent that the pull drawer 40 slides out is determined according to an extended stroke of the rails 50, so that the dimensions of the pull drawer 40 are determined.
However, the pull drawer of a refrigerator so configured has the following problems.
That is, when the rails 50 comprising the first movable rails 54′, the second movable rails 54″ and the fixed rails 52 are pulled out while they continuously slide collinearly, the conventional refrigerator pull drawer is subjected to a moment caused from the weight of the foods accommodated in the pull drawer 40 itself and the extended length of the rails 50.
Therefore, when the extended length is large or many foods are accommodated, the moment exerted on the rails 50 is also increased, so that the rails 50 for supporting the pull drawer 40 are subjected to an excessive load. It causes the rails 50 to be damaged and raises a problem in that the rails 50 do not perform their inherent function.
In addition, when the moment is reduced by allowing the extended length to be decreased, the size of the pull drawer 40 is also reduced in proportion thereto. Accordingly, an amount of foods to be accommodated in the pull drawer 40 is decreased, which is ineffective. Further, since the inner space of the drawer chamber 20 in the rear of the pull drawer 40 cannot be available, there is a problem in that the practical usability of the inner storage space is deteriorated.
The rails 50 for causing the pull drawer 40 to slide comprise the first movable rails 54′, the second movable rails 54″ and the fixed rails 52. The pull drawer 40 further comprises the rail mount brackets 44 for fixing the rails 50 to the pull drawer 40. In addition, the rails 50 are formed of metallic material, while the rolling members mounted to the rails 50 are formed of the material different from the metal.
Therefore, the number of the components for operating the pull drawer 40 is unnecessarily increased, the kinds of the components are different from each other, and the manufacturing processes thereof are also different from each other, thus increasing the total man-hour needed for the works. Accordingly, there are problems in that the productivity is decreased as well as the production costs are increased.
In the meantime, the pull drawer 40 assembled to the rails 50 is installed all together to the drawer chamber 20, and is configured such that the pull drawer 40 is not easily separated in order not to escape. Thus, since the assembly of the pull drawer 40 and the rails 50 should be entirely disassembled when the pull drawer 40 is separated in order to be cleaned, managed, or the like, many problems are raised in the maintenance and services.
Furthermore, since the sliding order of the first and second movable rails 54′ and 54″ is not determined when the pull drawer 40 moves in the fore and aft direction by means of the first movable rails 54′, the second movable rails 54″ and the fixed rails 52, there is a problem in that much inconvenience is raised when using the pull drawer 40.
The pull drawer 40 is guided by guide rails (not shown) provided on both side surfaces of the pull drawer 40. When the pull drawer 40 is closed, the front end of the pull drawer 40 collides with the front end of the refrigerator. Thus, there is also a problem in that noises occur or the pull drawer 40 is damaged.
Since it is difficult to separate the rail 50 into parts since the movable rails 54′, the second movable rails 54″ and the fixed rails 52 are integrally assembled into the rails 50, the installation position of the pull drawer 40 is fixed. Thus, it is impossible to control the layout in the drawer chamber 20 using the pull drawer 40. Accordingly, there are also problems in that it is difficult to achieve flexible accommodation environments for accommodating a variety of foods in the drawer chamber 20 and that the space usability of the drawer chamber 20 is deteriorated.